Rift Among Navy SEALs Over Members Who Cash In on Brand

[bailaviborita]

I've often observed that the more intense and sustained the combat one was in, the less one is likely to talk about it. The WWII vets and Korean War vets I know rarely talk about their experiences and never puff themselves up. War was hell to them. Some Vietnam vets and many Desert Storm, OEF and OIF vets I know seem to more likely be willing to talk about their "combat" experiences.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/us...=62971638&_r=0

Eric Greitens’s bid for governor of Missouri hinges on his experience as a Navy
SEALs member, which he has chronicled in three books and promotes on his
campaign web site, where he is pictured wearing his combat uniform, holding
a rifle. “In the SEALs we learned, ‘there is no prize for second place in a
gunfight,’ ” he said recently on Twitter

Now Mr. Greitens, seeking the Republican nomination, finds himself in a
battle with some former comrades, who charged in a slickly produced YouTube
video that he exaggerated his record and was unduly benefiting from his time
in the SEALs. The dispute lays bare a widening rift among Navy SEALs,
provoked by what leaders and many in the ranks describe as rampant
commercial and personal exploitation of a brotherhood that once prized
discretion.

In recent months, the Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado,
Calif., which oversees the elite force, has told its men to lower their profile and
tried to rein in public appearances by active*duty members.
The Pentagon imposed a rule last September restricting the appearance of service members
in video games, movies and television shows. Current and former members
have widely circulated a pointed critique — titled “Navy SEALs Gone Wild:
Publicity, Fame, and the Loss of the Quiet Professional” — that laments the
commercialization and warns that it is doing harm.

“The raising of Navy SEALs to celebrity status through media exploitation
and publicity stunts has corrupted the culture of the SEAL community by
incentivizing narcissistic and profit*oriented behavior,” Lt. Forrest S. Crowell,
a SEAL, wrote in the critique, his master’s thesis for the Naval Postgraduate
School in Monterey, Calif. Partisan politicking and public disclosure of tactics,
he added, “erodes military effectiveness, damages national security, and
undermines healthy civil*military relations.”

But the pushback has had little sway over former members who are
increasingly giving paid speeches, sounding off on politics on Fox News and
stamping the force’s name on hats, backpacks, vitamins and even a campaign
bus. A television show by the Weinstein Company, working with a former
SEALs consultant, is set to air on the History channel later this year, and a
half*dozen books are scheduled to roll off the presses in coming months,
adding to the 100*plus published by former SEALs since 2001